President Barack Obama speaks about the National Security Agency (NSA) and intelligence agencies surveillance techniques at the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, DC, January 17, 2014. (Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images)

Based on the philosophy of preserving the NSA programs but making them more transparent and protective of privacy rights, the president outlined several changes. But Mr. Obama’s solutions brought an avalanche of criticisms due to their vagueness and difficulty in implementing.

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